US, lower Mekong countries agree on development project

Foreign ministers from the United States and four countries in the lower Mekong basin Thursday agreed to set up a working group to develop Mekong-Mississippi cooperation.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton chaired a meeting with her counterparts from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam to discuss the issue of water management in the two rivers, which are equally polluted.

Since this is the first-ever meeting of this sort, participants did not go into deep detail but explored the possibility of developing cooperation in terms of water resources, Lao Foreign Ministry spokesman Khenthong Nuanthasing said.

Source : The Nation,July 23, 2009

The Mekong River

The Mekong River is one of the world’s major rivers. It is the world's 10th-longest river and the 7th-longest in Asia. (discharging 475 km³/114 cu mi of water annually). Its estimated length is 4,350 km (2,703 mi), and it drains an area of 795,000 km²(307,000 sq mi).

From the Tibetan Plateau this river runs through China's Yunnan province, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. All these areas except China and Burma belong to the Mekong River Commission.

A South- and Southeast Asian regional association, the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation, is named after both this river and the Ganges river.

The extreme seasonal variations in flow and the presence of rapids and waterfalls in this river have made navigation extremely difficult.

Source : Wikipedia.org